The US had paused intelligence-sharing with Ukraine, CIA Director John Ratcliffe said on Wednesday, piling pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to cooperate with US President Donald Trump in convening peace talks with Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday there had been “positive movement” in cooperation with the US that could lead to another meeting between the two sides soon.
France and Britain were aiming to finalise with Ukraine, possibly “in days”, a peace plan to present to the US, while building bridges between the US and Ukraine before possible talks in Washington, said diplomats.
US pauses intelligence for Ukraine, adding pressure for peace deal
The US had paused intelligence-sharing with Ukraine, said CIA Director John Ratcliffe on Wednesday, piling pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to cooperate with US President Donald Trump in convening peace talks with Russia.
The suspension, which could cost lives by hurting Ukraine’s ability to defend itself against Russian missile strikes, followed a halt this week to US military aid to Kyiv. It underscored Trump’s willingness to play hardball with an ally as he pivots to a more conciliatory approach to Moscow from what was strong US support for Ukraine.
The pressure appears to have worked, with Trump on Tuesday saying he received a letter from Zelensky in which the Ukrainian leader said he was willing to come to the negotiating table.
“I think on the military front and the intelligence front, the pause I think will go away,” Ratcliffe told Fox Business Network.
“I think we’ll work shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine as we have to push back on the aggression that’s there, but to put the world in a better place for these peace negotiations to move forward,” he said.
Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz, told another Fox programme that the president would consider restoring assistance to Kyiv if peace talks were arranged and unspecified confidence-building measures taken.
A source familiar with the situation, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Trump administration had halted “everything”, including targeting data that Ukraine has used to strike Russian targets.
A second source said intelligence-sharing had only “partially” been cut, but was unable to provide more detail.
Washington on Monday halted military aid to Kyiv following a disastrous Oval Office meeting on Friday in which Trump shouted at Zelensky before the world’s media. The clash delayed the signing of a Ukraine-US minerals deal.
Several Democrats lambasted the intelligence-sharing suspension. Senator Mark Warner, the vice chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, said the “ill-advised decision” showed that Trump had given US power to Russia.
“Let me be clear: cutting off intelligence support to our Ukrainian partners will cost [Ukrainian] lives,” said the Virginia Democrat.
European countries are scrambling to boost defence spending and maintain support for Ukraine. France and Britain were aiming to finalise, possibly within days, a peace plan to present to the US, said diplomats.
In his address to Congress on Tuesday evening, Trump said Kyiv was ready to sign a deal on exploiting Ukraine’s critical mineral deposits, which the US leader has demanded to repay the costs of US military aid. He provided no further information.
Trump also said he had been in “serious discussions with Russia” and had received strong signals that they were ready for peace.
“It’s time to end this senseless war. If you want to end wars you have to talk to both sides,” he said.
The US has provided critical intelligence to Ukraine for its fight against Moscow’s forces, including information that helped thwart Russian President Vladimir Putin’s drive to seize Kyiv at the start of his full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Some experts said the US intelligence-sharing suspension would hurt Ukraine’s ability to strike Russian forces, which occupy about 20% of the country’s territory.
“Unfortunately, our dependence in this regard is quite serious, starting with missile threats, missile attacks and ending with what is happening in Russia, in the temporarily occupied territories in terms of launching strikes,” said Mykola Bielieskov, a research fellow at Ukraine’s National Institute for Strategic Studies.
Some of the loss could be offset through purchases of commercial satellite imagery, but only military satellites could pinpoint missile launches, he said.
The intelligence suspension also will complicate Ukraine’s defences against Russian air and missile strikes, Bielieskov said, which regularly have hit civilian buildings like schools and hospitals, killing hundreds of non-combatants.
“We will have less time to react, more destruction, potentially more casualties; it will all weaken us very, very much,” he said.
Zelensky hails ‘positive movement’ in relations with US
Zelensky said on Wednesday there had been “positive movement” in cooperation with the US that could lead to another meeting between the two sides soon.
“Today our Ukrainian and US teams began working on a meeting. Andriy Yermak and Mike Waltz spoke,” said Zelensky in his evening address, referring to his chief of staff and the US national security adviser.
“There is positive movement. We hope for the first results next week.”
Yermak said on X he had “exchanged views on security issues and the alignment of positions” with Waltz, and that they had scheduled a meeting of Ukrainian and US officials “in the near future to continue this important work”.
Britain, France plan new Washington trip
France and Britain were aiming to finalise with Ukraine, possibly “in days”, a peace plan to present to the US, while building bridges between the US and Ukraine before possible talks in Washington, said diplomats.
President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Keir Starmer have held several calls, separately, with Trump and Zelensky since the presidents of the US and Ukraine held a fractious meeting last Friday in the Oval Office that led to a suspension of US military aid to Kyiv.
The breakdown in US-Ukraine ties has given new urgency to the two European nuclear powers’ efforts to pull together ideas for a peace plan that would initially outline a short truce but also eventually include broader security guarantees.
Britain and France have both said the US would be needed for future assurances.
“We’re looking at putting this plan together in days and not weeks,” said one senior European diplomat.
A second European diplomat said the idea was to have all the “ducks lined up”, including a more healthy dialogue between Washington and Kyiv, while underlining the message to the US that Russia was the aggressor.
If the conditions were then in place, it could open the door to new meetings in Washington between the Europeans and Trump, although it was unclear at this stage whether this would also involve Zelensky or just the British and French leaders.
Starmer navigates Ukraine talks with ‘cool head’ as Trump acts tough
“Cool heads” is the mantra of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer as he tries to heal a rapidly growing rift between the US, Europe and Ukraine.
Starmer, who has played up his role as go-between over Ukraine, faces a diplomatic balancing act to keep both Europe and Trump on side and protect Britain from US tariffs that would damage his country’s strained finances.
He has formed an unexpected alliance with Macron, a sharp critic of Britain’s departure from the European Union, and a solid relationship with Trump, who UK officials say likes Starmer’s lack of pretension.
“You are a very tough negotiator ... I’m not sure I like that, but okay,” Trump told Starmer at a press conference after they met at the White House on Thursday. Starmer had earned his salary with his efforts to end the threat of US tariffs, Trump said, without saying that he had succeeded.
Since Trump upended Washington’s supportive approach to Ukraine earlier this year, Starmer has helped to defend Kyiv’s position while not offending the US leader, who wants a swift peace deal, with or without Zelensky.
After convening talks with European leaders in London on Sunday, Starmer said Britain, France and others would work on a proposed peace deal to deliver to Trump and “a coalition of the willing” to defend it.
He and Macron hope their leadership can help them rescue their reputations at home and cement European security as Germany recovers from months of domestic political uncertainty.
A trained lawyer sometimes criticised for a lack of humour, Starmer’s dispassionate and methodical approach at the White House talks and subsequent meetings in London with Zelensky and European leaders at the weekend, has been widely praised.
“This weekend he has not really put a foot wrong,” former foreign minister James Cleverly from the opposition Conservative Party told parliament on Monday.
A British source said Starmer had been advising Zelensky on what would close the gap with Trump. The Ukrainian leader wrote to Trump on Tuesday saying he was ready to negotiate. Starmer called Zelensky earlier that day, praising his commitment to securing peace.
It was the surprise phone call between Trump and Putin on 12 February that spurred Starmer into action. “Time for cool heads,” said a government source at the time, using a phrase that officials repeat.
Nato armies unprepared for drone wars, warns Ukraine commander
Nato armed forces were not ready for a modern drone war, warned the military commander in charge of Ukraine’s unmanned systems, three years into a conflict with Russia in which both sides are pushing for a technological edge.
Kyiv was striving to stay ahead of the enemy, employing artificial intelligence, deploying more ground drones and testing lasers to bring down Russian unmanned aerial vehicles, said Colonel Vadym Sukharevskyi, head of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces.
Speaking in a newly outfitted office for the recently founded Unmanned Systems Forces, the location of which Reuters was asked not to disclose, Sukharevskyi laid out the leaps and bounds in which drone warfare had advanced since the start of the invasion in 2022, and how it upended the established doctrines of war.
“From what I see and hear, not a single Nato army is ready to resist the cascade of drones,” Sukharevskyi told Reuters in a recent interview.
He said Nato should recognise the economic advantage of drones, which often cost far less to build than the conventional weaponry required to down them.
“It’s just elementary mathematics. How much does a missile that shoots down a [Russian] Shahed [drone] cost? And how much does it cost to deploy a ship, a plane and an air defence system to fire at it?”
Long-range drones can cost as little as several thousand dollars for the most basic decoy models, although the Shahed strike drones have been estimated to cost in the tens of thousands. Air defence interceptor missiles usually have a six or seven figure US-dollar price tag and many countries only keep limited stocks, thus making their use highly uneconomical.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, there has been a vast expansion in drone use.
Ukraine says it made 2.2 million small First Person View (FPV) drones and 100,000 larger, long-range ones in 2024. Russia previously gave estimates that it would make 1.4 million FPV drones in the same year.
“Right now, even the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine says that more than 60% of targets are destroyed by drones,” said Sukharevskyi.
“The only question is how the tactics of their use will develop, and, following on from that, the technological aspect.”
Russian attacks, often numbering more than 100 drones, have become a regular occurrence in Ukraine.
They are conducted by a mix of Iranian-designed Shahed strike drones and much cheaper, flimsier decoy models that can use up Ukraine’s limited stockpiles of air defence missiles.
Ukraine has used pickup trucks with mounted machine guns and military aviation to down drones more efficiently, and Kyiv is working on other options such as using FPV interceptor drones and laser weapons.
Ukraine successfully shot down fixed-wing drones in testing using a laser, Sukharevskyi said, adding that the goal was to roll out laser systems in combat, although he did not specify timelines.
Sukharevskyi said his units were now using a mothership drone that could carry two FPV drones up to 70km before releasing them and acting as a relay station for their communications.
He estimated that there were thousands of unmanned ground vehicles operating on the frontlines, meaning fewer soldiers were needed to go to dangerous areas for logistics or combat.
On the battlefield, both sides have adopted extensive electronic warfare as they seek to jam signal links to drones in the air, rendering traditional drones inoperable.
This has led to a boom in drones using automated targeting, which guides a drone to its target through artificial intelligence after the pilot selects it through the drone’s camera. However, the decision to strike must be made by a human and not by AI, he said.
Sukharevskyi believes at least half of Ukraine’s frontline drone units are now using such systems to some degree, and that the majority of drones in combat would eventually end up using this system.
“If it wasn’t for drones, everything would be a lot worse. Drones are the things which allow us to give an asymmetrical response [when] the enemy is larger, stronger and on the attack,” he said.
Scholz, Zelensky discuss Trump’s leadership to bring peace
Germany’s outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Zelensky on Wednesday discussed Trump’s role in negotiations to achieve peace in Kyiv’s three-year-old war with Russia.
“Both agreed on the importance of the US president’s leadership role, also with a view to achieving a swift start to a ceasefire and lasting peace for Ukraine,” said a German government spokesperson.
Following the call, Zelensky said on X he had held “an honest conversation about various issues and our vision for the future security architecture” with Scholz.
“We all want a safe future for our people. Not a temporary ceasefire, but an end to the war once and for all. With our coordinated efforts and US leadership, this is entirely achievable,” said Zelensky after the call with Scholz.
Scholz also reiterated Germany’s continued and unwavering solidarity with Ukraine, added the spokesperson.
On Tuesday, Zelensky also held a phone call with chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz to discuss further cooperation.
Trump-Zelensky clash exposes divisions in Europe’s rising far right
Trump’s White House confrontation with Zelensky is exposing differences within Europe’s burgeoning far-right movement over his plan to end the war between Russia and Ukraine.
They celebrated the US president’s return to power for taking a fringe movement mainstream and have backed billionaire Elon Musk’s call to “Make Europe Great Again (Mega)”. But some on Europe’s far right are torn about Trump’s dressing-down of Zelensky and his seeming indifference to the perceived threat Putin poses to democratic Europe.
Trump on Monday froze critical US military aid for Ukraine against Russia’s three-year-old invasion following an explosive public confrontation in the Oval Office last week over a peace plan with Zelensky, who infuriated Trump by insisting the US should provide security guarantees as part of any ceasefire.
A handful of Europe’s far-right figures including Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, Germany’s Tino Chrupalla and Italy’s Matteo Salvini have backed Trump emphatically.
Other right-leaning politicians such as Britain’s Nigel Farage and Poland’s Krzysztof Bosak couched their support with caveats or were openly critical of Trump’s cold-shouldering of Europe and Ukraine while suggesting Kyiv would have to cede territory for peace but demanding no concessions from the Kremlin.
The divergence shows how right-wing populists are far from a cohesive group, curbing their sway in European Union politics and underlining the limits of Musk’s effort to rally the region around his Mega campaign to promote the anti-EU far right.
“There is a combination of factors that don’t necessarily spur open confrontation with Trump as with the left, but still lead to distance between him and ... far-right parties that increasingly accept European integration,” said Alexander Clarkson, lecturer in European studies at King’s College London.
Orbán sprang to Trump’s defence, supporting the president’s approach to Ukraine peace talks that, so far, exclude Kyiv and Europe.
Trump had “stood bravely for peace — even if it was difficult for many to digest”, said Orbán on X after Trump’s tongue-lashing of Zelensky in front of global media.
The far-right, pro-Russia Alternative for Germany (AfD), fresh from its historic second place in last month’s national election, also sided with Trump.
“Since the EU and Germany unfortunately fail as mediators, the USA and Russia must come to an agreement [on Ukraine],” wrote AfD co-leader Chrupalla on X.
Bjoern Hoecke, leader of the AfD’s most radical far-right wing, said the White House bust-up was Zelensky’s fault after he “decided he had to insult his hosts”.
A source at Spain’s Vox party took a warier stance, saying that overt support for Putin by some of its European counterparts was leaving its voters confused.
“Trump’s unpredictability has left us in disarray,” said the source. “Do we attack Putin or align ourselves with Trump’s view of Putin?”
Some, such as the far-right opposition Konfederacja in Poland, where fear of Russian regional domination is deeply rooted in history, blasted Trump and Putin alike.
“Trump, contrary to his campaign promises and perhaps contrary to his own imagination, was unable to obtain a quick peace from Putin,” said Konfederacja co-leader Bosak on Facebook. “Putin still decides how long this war will last, regardless of who is in the White House.”
Other right-wing populists were more equivocal.
Farage, leader of Britain’s Reform party, agreed on X with Zelensky that Ukraine needed “the right security guarantees” for a peace plan to work but later was more critical of the Ukrainian leader, saying on LBC radio that “in diplomatic terms, I think Zelensky played it very badly”.
France’s National Rally leader Marine Le Pen has refused to take sides, saying both Trump and Zelensky were defending their national interests during their heated quarrel.
While Orbán backed Trump’s plan, his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni was in London discussing a European alternative peace plan.
“We are Europeans, and this issue concerns us closely — it is happening on our doorstep. We have taken a position and we are sticking to it,” said Edmondo Cirielli, Italy’s deputy foreign minister and member of Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party.
Meloni, who has staunchly backed Ukraine since becoming Italy’s premier but has cultivated good relations with Trump, aimed to walk a fine line between backing Europe on defence and not angering the US president, said Emanuele Massetti, a political science professor at the University of Trento. DM